Thinking about moving your store from Shopify to WooCommerce? You’re not alone. While Shopify is an excellent hosted platform for beginners, many growing businesses migrate to WooCommerce for its flexibility, lower long-term costs, and SEO advantages. This guide explains why WooCommerce is a better fit for scaling stores, provides a step-by-step Shopify to WooCommerce migration process, covers common pitfalls, and gives you a checklist to ensure nothing is missed.
Why Choose WooCommerce Over Shopify?
Shopify simplifies eCommerce, but it comes with limitations—like high monthly fees, transaction costs, and less control over your website. Switching from Shopify to WooCommerce puts you in charge of your store and opens up a larger ecosystem of plugins, integrations, and customizations.
- No Monthly Platform Fees: With WooCommerce, you only pay for hosting and optional plugins—the core platform is free.
- Full Ownership: Unlike Shopify, WooCommerce gives you complete control over your site and data.
- SEO Advantages: WordPress and WooCommerce offer advanced SEO tools, giving you an edge in organic rankings.
- Extensive Plugin Ecosystem: Access thousands of free and premium plugins for payments, shipping, marketing, and more.
- Customization Flexibility: With page builders, themes, and custom code, your WooCommerce store can look and function exactly how you want.
- WooCommerce + WordPress Synergy: Manage both your content and products on the same platform for smoother marketing.
Step-by-Step Migration Process
Here’s a clear roadmap for moving from Shopify to WooCommerce without losing your products, customers, or SEO rankings.
- Choose a Hosting Provider: Since WooCommerce is self-hosted, select fast, reliable hosting to ensure performance. For reliable and affordable hosting, we recommend Hostinger.
- Set Up WordPress & WooCommerce: Install WordPress via your hosting dashboard, then add and configure the WooCommerce plugin.
- Export Shopify Data: Export products, customers, and orders from Shopify using built-in tools or apps like LitExtension or Cart2Cart.
- Import Data into WooCommerce: Use WooCommerce import plugins to map and import CSV files, ensuring products, categories, and customers transfer correctly.
- Rebuild Your Store Design: Pick a WooCommerce-compatible theme and recreate your store’s branding, layouts, and navigation.
- Configure Payment Gateways: Set up gateways like Stripe, PayPal, or local bank integrations to replace Shopify Payments.
- Set Up Shipping Rules: Replicate or improve your shipping zones, rates, and carriers in WooCommerce.
- Redirect Shopify URLs: Use 301 redirects to ensure old links point to the correct new WooCommerce URLs—essential for SEO preservation.
- Test Your Store: Place test orders, verify checkout, shipping, and taxes, and ensure customers can log in successfully.
- Go Live: Switch your domain DNS to point to your new WooCommerce hosting and monitor site performance after launch.
Common Challenges & How to Avoid Them
- Data Loss: Incomplete transfers of product variations or customer accounts. Always double-check imported CSV files.
- SEO Risks: Shopify and WooCommerce URLs differ. Use a redirection plugin to prevent broken links.
- Payment Gateways: Shopify Payments doesn’t transfer, so set up Stripe, PayPal, or other supported WooCommerce gateways.
- Theme Differences: Your Shopify theme can’t be migrated—you’ll need to pick or customize a new WooCommerce theme.
- App/Plugin Gaps: Some Shopify apps don’t exist in WooCommerce. Find equivalent WooCommerce plugins to match functionality.
Pro Tips & Tools for Success
Make your Shopify to WooCommerce migration seamless with these expert tips:
- Use a Staging Site: Don’t migrate on your live domain—test everything first.
- Automated Tools: Services like Cart2Cart and LitExtension can automate migration and reduce manual work.
- Backup Everything: Back up Shopify data before export and WordPress before import.
- Install SEO Plugins: Use RankMath or Yoast SEO to restore meta descriptions and keywords.
- Optimize Performance: Use caching plugins (WP Rocket) and CDNs for speed after launch.
- Choose the Right Hosting: Hosting affects uptime and performance. For reliable and affordable hosting, we recommend Hostinger.
Final Checklist
✅ WordPress and WooCommerce installed
✅ Shopify products, customers, and orders imported
✅ Store design recreated with a WooCommerce theme
✅ Payment gateways and shipping configured
✅ 301 redirects created for old Shopify URLs
✅ SEO plugin installed and metadata restored
✅ Security, caching, and backup plugins activated
✅ Test orders placed successfully
Our eCommerce to WooCommerce Migration Services
We provide migration solutions for different eCommerce platforms. Explore our detailed migration services:
- HikaShop To WooCommerce
- Magento To WooCommerce
- OpenCart To WooCommerce
- PrestaShop To WooCommerce
- Ubercart To WooCommerce
- VirtueMart To WooCommerce
- ZenCart To WooCommerce
Frequently Asked Questions About Shopify To WooCommerce
1. Why move from Shopify to WooCommerce?
WooCommerce offers more customization, no transaction fees, better SEO control, and lower long-term costs compared to Shopify.
2. Can I transfer all my Shopify products to WooCommerce?
Yes, you can migrate all products, categories, variations, and images using import tools or migration services.
3. Will my customers’ accounts transfer too?
Yes, customer data including accounts and order history can be migrated, but you’ll need to reset passwords for security.
4. How do I keep my SEO rankings after migrating?
Set up 301 redirects, preserve metadata using an SEO plugin, and verify everything in Google Search Console.
5. Do I need coding skills for migration?
No, with the right tools you don’t need coding experience. However, complex stores may benefit from developer support.
6. Which hosting is best for WooCommerce?
WooCommerce requires reliable hosting optimized for WordPress. We recommend Hostinger for affordable and fast WooCommerce hosting.
Conclusion
Migrating from Shopify to WooCommerce gives you freedom, scalability, and ownership of your online store. With careful planning—especially around data migration and SEO—you can enjoy lower costs and a more powerful platform. Whether you’re running a small store or scaling an enterprise, WooCommerce provides the flexibility Shopify lacks.
👉 Ready to migrate from Shopify to WooCommerce? Contact us here and let’s handle the process for you.